


Quiet Love

by PanDitty, sourstraws



Series: Rivarmin Fest 2014 [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Fluffy, French Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), French!Levi, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, M/M, Rivarmin Fest 2014, levi has a potty mouth, rivarmin - Freeform, speak French to me, student!Armin, tutor!Levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1783027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanDitty/pseuds/PanDitty, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourstraws/pseuds/sourstraws
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Armin finds himself struggling with French he seeks the help of the best possible tutor on campus.</p><p>** Written for Rivarmin Fest 2014 on Tumblr **</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quiet Love

            It was later in the afternoon when a pair of light brown Dockers began to shuffle against the library sidewalk. On any given Saturday, Armin would usually study in room but didn't want to rouse his sleeping roommate. After all, he had a tutor for just this occasion and it wouldn't be fair to invite someone into their dorm while Eren was still asleep.  
  
            The blonde wasn't given any details when he visited the Skills Center to inquire about a tutor for French, only that the person would meet them on the second floor of the campus library. Armin quietly waved to the student workers at the front desk as he entered, keeping as quiet as possibly while clutching his textbook and binder close to his chest.

            He could feel his anxiety slowly starting to build as he looked around after making it up the stairs. All of the tables appeared to be full and he couldn't tell who he was looking for, deciding to seek refuge on a small lounging chair near an opened window.  
  
            Levi sat at a table, a library copy of _The Count of Monte Cristo_ in French in front of him. To anyone watching him, which many people watched the short yet dark haired and well-built man, he looked bored. However, he was thoroughly engaged in his read, as he waited for the brat he was supposed to tutor.  
  
            Levi glanced up from his book to see a short blonde in the library, evidently lost as he clutched his books, and wandered towards a chair at the window. He scowled, although it appeared to be his normal expression anyway. He stood and smoothly walked towards the blonde, who sat with his back to Levi.  
  
            He put his hand on the back of the chair and leaned down so that his face was almost even with the boy.  
  
            "Êtes-vous Armin?" He asked sternly, near the boy's face, grey eyes steely and sharp.  
  
            The sudden sound of a voice made the other jump as he quickly turned. Blue eyes locking onto intimidating coals. Armin was now certain that he had found his tutor; then again, that his tutor had found him.  
  
            "O-Oui, je suis Armin." He answered as quickly as possible.  
  
            Armin observed that his tutor was an older student, perhaps a Teaching Assistant who was temporarily living on campus. There were no wrinkles in his clothing, his hair was well kept and his disinterested expression was beginning to make the blonde doubt his decision on seeking a tutor.  
  
            "I-I'm sorry if I kept you waiting!"  
  
            Levi scrutinized Armin with little interest. The boy appeared young, with a rounded face and wide blue eyes that looked at him anxiously. He also was pale and oddly slender for a boy, as if he didn't get out much or exercise. He didn't acknowledge his apology.  
  
            "Je suis Levi," he said, voice low and quite. "And I will be your tutor." He turned and walked back to his table, indicating that he wanted Armin to follow. He sat down, one leg crossed over, resting on his other knee as he looked at Armin. Tutoring wasn't his thing. It was like babysitting or hand holding for someone. But if they needed help with French then he was the one.  
  
            "What do you want," He asked gruffly and then added. "help with...?"  
  
            After giving a small sigh of relief, the blonde quickly stood from his chair and began to follow. He arms tightened around his material as he followed the shorter male. Strange how he figured the other would be taller, but his immediate observation showed otherwise.  
  
            Armin caught a few glances of students watching as he walked passed. They would look and then immediately return to their assignments, quietly murmuring to one another. Surely there was nothing on his face, of maybe his hair has gotten messed up? He wasn't conscious of himself fidgeting a bit as he sat down on the opposite side of the table, a seemingly worried look on his face.  
  
            "Um," he started to say, not fully hearing the question as he asked in return. "Is there... something on my face…?”  
  
            He raised a brow at the boy's comment and folded his arms. Levi looked over at the gossips at the other table, with a withering glare. All whispers seemed to stop. He didn't need any quips from the fucking peanut gallery.  
  
            "No, it is just a bunch of brats who don't know how to mind their own business..." He said quietly but loud enough for those around them to hear. "...And they will regret it if they don't learn to." He then turned his eyes back to Armin. "Ignore them and answer my damn question. What do you need help with? I don't have all day."  
  
            Listening to him snapping caused Armin to lightly flinch. He was grateful that there was nothing on his face, but he was starting to get worried about the tutoring session. The silence seemed to linger and only made him a little paranoid as he responded with a sudden squeak.  
  
            "F-French!"  
  
            Blue eyes averted their gaze for a brief moment as he tried to recollect himself. "Sorry, I- I'm here to get help with French grammar..."  
  
            "Good," he said, despite the squeaky outburst. The boy appeared to be exceedingly nervous and anxious. Levi wondered if Armin was serious about this. Most of the people that he tutored hardly put effort into the work or even comprehending the language.  
  
            "Do you have your workbook on you?" He said, cracking open his own book. He thought for a moment. "Never mind. Fuck the workbook for now. What exactly are you having problems with in grammar?" He said looking directly into Armin's eyes.  
  
            "W-Well," Armin opened his mouth to finish before sighing. It was hard to admit that he couldn't grasp detailed sentence in the same way that his classmates had. Although he was doing well in all of his other classes, he couldn't grasp the grammar concept. "Everything, if you would believe that..."  
  
            His blue gaze then returned to meet Levi's stony gaze. "I can understand the basics but," he paused, a frown on his lips and brows furrowed as he murmured his trouble. "When it comes to directions, explaining how my days was and complicated things like that... I don't get it."  
  
            The boy's frustration was apparent with the way he frowned and his nose scrunched up slightly. "That is usually what people struggle with..." Levi commented. He tore a sheet of paper out of his notebook and a pencil and handed it to Armin.  
  
            "Try writing down those kind of sentences. As many as you can and as best as you can. Then hand them back and I'll show you what needs fixing, understand?" Levi asked, seriously.  
  
            Armin could only nod as he stared at paper and writing utensil being offered to him. He hesitated to reach for the items, but knew that he wouldn't progress without trying.   
  
            As he wrote he would often murmur words in French, stopped to stare at what he had written and immediately erased to start over once more. Between concerned sighs and filling in areas with English, he placed the pencil onto the paper and slowly slid it over.  
  
            "I-I tried..." Armin spoke, voice low as he stared at the five sentences he had managed in that time.  
             
            Levi took the paper and was actually very surprised, though it didn't show. The blonde was slow but it was clear he put a lot of thought and effort into it. Most people gave up and wrote three sentences at best when it came to this. Furthermore the expression the blonde wore while trying to figure it out was rather... Cute. For a boy.  
  
            The sentences weren't bad either. They could make sense but were poorly put together, stringing the words together in the wrong order and forgetting a few accents on the letters. His vocabulary seemed good except for a few words but...  
  
            "It's a good effort," Levi said flatly. "I can see where you are struggling." He turned the paper back to Armin and dragged his chair to the blonde’s side. "What you need..." He scooted in close to the boy to point to the paper and began to explain his mistakes and how to fix it.  
  
            Armin found himself sharply inhaling at what sounded like a compliment, eyes no longer staring at the paper but looking at Levi in surprise. "It is?" he asked, though more impulsively than intended.  
  
            Nimble fingers quickly reached over for his belongings to place of the other side of the table. He wasn't expecting Levi to move over, but, by him doing so, he was able to pick up on a few things he didn't notice before.   
             
            They were nearly the same height as they sat next to each other, but Armin knew that he was slightly taller than Levi. How the other slightly slowed down the speed of his voice so that Armin could understand how the accents should be properly written. How it was slowly becoming easier for Armin to ask his own responsive questions, and the underlying patience in those stormy made him smile.  
  
            "I think I'm starting to get it now."  
  
            Levi looked at the boy sideways with a contemplative stare before finally going back to the paper. If this were true than this boy was a fast learner and figured the professor was doing something wrong. The boy also seemed to be making a big effort, nodding his head to his explanations and looking at him with bright, intelligent eyes.  
  
            "Then try again," he said flipping the paper over. "Write as many sentences as you can on this side now with similar structure. You don't have to worry about vocabulary right now."  
  
            "Right now?" This brought an unsure look to his face as he stared at his tutor. Armin was only greeted with the usual disinterested stare, but registered a fraction of motivation. "Okay..." He unwillingly answered as he picked up the pencil to write.  
  
            Knowing that Levi was watching caused him to tense up a bit, but he continued. Murmurs in French and English escaped thin lips as hand began to glide over the paper, often stopping to reflect and review his sentences for any mistakes.  
  
            "Is… Is this okay, Levi?"  
  
            It was better. Much better. The boy clearly grasped the concept now. He was rather impressed that the boy could learn so quickly.  
  
            "It is better," Levi said. There some holes in his vocabulary still but they can work on that later. "Keep practicing it," he said. He took the paper and slid it under one of his book and looked back at Armin.  
  
            "Comment s'est passée ta journée?" He asked fluently.  
  
            Armin then blinked a few times at the sound if the question. He hadn't done much that day besides wake up and take a shower, though he wasn't sure he should confess that to someone he had only met about a few hours ago.  
  
            "Ma journée? Ma journée a été très bien." He admitted as best he could. "Votre jour, Levi?"  
  
            Levi nodded satisfied with the response. His accent was poor but that would take practice and listening to get right. "Ma journée est trés bien," he said, a rather general response. "Now what other problems do you have? We'll work on them for as long as it takes."  
  
            Armin gave a tilt of his head as he listened to the other repeating the phrase back to him. He took the moment to reflect on the other problems he had in class, sighing as he spoke.   
  
            "Mostly with grammar and remembering vocabulary."  
  
            "Vocabulary will be something to practice and learn over time," Levi said. "But we should start now for with this."  
  
            He wrote out a sheet of vocabulary words and moved a little closer, their knees unintentionally touching though he paid it no mind.   
  
            "Start with these... Write them out without looking at the words... And tell me the meaning of each. If you don't know it then skip it." He used a hand to cover the words. "Begin."  
  
            Such a small action caused the younger male to lightly stiffen. He quietly watched his mentor from the corners of his blue hues, swallowing slowly at their closeness before turning his attention to the list at hand. There where the basic meanings that he knew. Words such as: how, today, I'm, a few days of the week, etc., followed by words that he could only guess.  
  
            When it was Armin's turn to write he felt his hand shaking a little more than usual. He started by repeating the visible English for each word while quietly answering in French. Once he was halfway down the list he started to skip over more words. Toward the end he had numerous blank areas on the sheet of paper, placing the pencil down with a defeated sigh as he pointed to one of the words.  
  
            "I-I think this one is 'mignon', but I'm not sure."  
  
            "Be more confident," he snapped quietly. "Because that's correct."  
  
            He studied the blanks in his vocabulary with a frown. Perhaps he put some more difficult words in there... But it shouldn't matter. He would learn these words eventually and there was no point in putting it off.  
  
            "Now this word," Levi said, pointing at the word 'baiser'.  
  
            "'B-Baiser?'" Armin repeated after flinching from the sudden snap. He couldn't quite recall if he had ever heard that word before in class and thinking about it caused his brows to furrow as he stared at the hand covering answer.   
  
            "What does that mean...?"  
  
            "Kiss," Levi said nonchalantly, sliding his hand down the paper and moving on to the next word. He noticed rather suddenly how slender Armin's fingers were as they held the pencil delicately and carefully wrote. He noticed that his handwriting was very neat and elegant. It looked like a girl's handwriting.  
  
            "Why...'kiss'?" Armin quietly asked in response. When it came words that had anything to do with relationships Armin would go quiet. It wasn't that he was afraid, but the thought of kissing someone made him bashful.   
  
            "I-I mean. Why is it...there? On the list, I mean.."  
  
            Levi looked at him with a frown. "It is a basic word to learn," he said. "If someone asked you, 'Puis-je vous embrasser?' you would have to understand and answer back."  
  
            He looked at the boy and noticed he was rather nervous and shy about the topic.

            _'How cute,'_ he thought, his lips suddenly quirking into a small smirk.   
  
            "You have to learn everything if you truly want to be fluent," Levi said.  
  
            At the sound of the question his pale cheeks became flushed and he stiffened. He knew that it wasn't directed at him as an actual offer, but the thought of anyone asking that of him seemed absurd. He found himself looking away, almost scooting in the opposite direction as he began to fidget.  
  
            "I-I understand that, but..."  
  
            "But what?" Levi frowned at the boy's reaction. He was awfully fidgety and his face was red. It was nothing to get embarrassed about... This boy was truly innocent...  
  
            "Perhaps we should end our session for today," he finally said. If the boy was nervous he wouldn't get any studying done. He had seen the boy in the library before for long hours studying... And he didn't want to overburden him with information.  
  
            Armin opened his mouth to come up with a reasonable excuse for his actions, but found himself falling short. If he were able to come up with an excuse he would have turned against it. A library wasn't meant to discuss such things, at least in his opinion.  
  
            "N-Never mind. I'm okay.." He managed before turning his attention to the window he was sitting at before. The sky was beginning to darken due to the passing hours and he still had to review material for his other classes.  
  
            "I, um..."  
  
            The blonde then slowly turned his attention toward Levi. His face was still lightly tinted, but he managed an earnest smile as he quietly spoke. "Thank you for helping me today. Um," he paused, bashfully looking downward to avoid the other's intense gaze. "Tomorrow, could I…well…"  
  
            Although the boy missed it, Levi smirked again in amusement. This tiny, pale boy had somehow... Impressed him.  
  
            "You would like to have another tutoring session with me?" He finished for the stammering boy. "You would have to schedule another one with me..." He stood and looked Armin, expression much less severe and softer. "But I would be happy to continue tutoring you."  
  
            Armin could only smile a little more after their first session had ended. As he walked back to his dorm he didn't clutch onto his material as tightly. Instead, he only his left arm to hold his belongings close to his chest while his right dangled to the side and moved with each step. His thoughts would often return to Levi as he studied, finding himself looking forward to each tutoring session.  
  
            Without fail he would look over and see the dark haired male at their usual spot on the second floor in the library. Armin would smile without the slightest ounce of hesitation, and with a slight blush on his face as he greeted him.  
  
            "Désolé de vous avoir fait attendre."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Êtes-vous: Are you...  
> Je suis: I am...  
> Comment s'est passée ta journée?: How was your day?  
> Votre jour: Your day  
> Puis-je vous embrasser?: Can I kiss you?  
> Désolé de vous avoir fait attendre: Sorry to keep you waiting.
> 
> Levi - sourstraws  
> Armin - PanDitty
> 
> PanDitty: Jeezus this took longer to finish than expected... Everything looked longer on LINE. Also, thanks to sourstraws for posting this so we can both make it pretty. u///u ...A day pretty late... Onto prompt #2!! :D
> 
> sourstraws: But it was fun to do! So fluffy... I hope the translations up there make it easier... Onwards!


End file.
